European solutions to disinformation and how they may impact on fundamental rights

Abstract

In previous research, I outlined some of the new challenges that the European Union was facing in producing communication policies due to the increase in disinformation. The EU, alarmed by the mass dissemination of fake news during the presidential elections of 2016 in the USA or around Brexit in the UK, began work on stopping this phenomenon in Europe. The first step was to recognise the magnitude of the problem, and in order to face it, in June 2017 the European Parliament adopted a Resolution in which it urges the European Commission to analyse the legal framework existing in the fight against disinformation, and also the possibility of intervening at a legislative level in order to check this phenomenon was assessed. Fighting against disinformation is a longdistance race in which it is hard to keep up to the speed of technological advances and the consumption of news, but it is fundamental to maintain legality in actions in order to put a brake on this disinformation as these actions can become a justification for limiting freedom of expression or privacy, putting fundamental human rights at risk.